Blog to self....

....write stuff here....

Eigenharp

Looks awesome! Check it out on youtube or google. I bet it's nigh on impossible to play but looks good fun :)

PS big congrats to Jensen Button - an awesome drive to show he's a real champion. Well done! Also he's British - so is that 2 in 2 for british motorsport? Can it be an olympic sport? :)

PPS I realise the PS is longer than the post but it's my blog and I'll do what I like :P

updates....

I have logged in to blogspot every day this week - opened up a new post and sat there saying/typing/posting nothing. Today I am rectifying this!

Just a few updates...
- Jenn and I are playing Badminton together - which is good cos Jenn's better than me and so I can be uber-competitive without making it not fun.
- I'm still playing 5-a-side. Which is good when we win - but as soon as we start losing it appears that we lose all focus and start whining, like puppies who've had their toys taken away.
- It's my brothers birthday soon, so part-ay on Friday! W00t!

That's all for now...

Fully booked weekends

Jenn and I went to visit a friend of hers from Uni this weekend. The first such visit, involving an overnight stay, that we have gone on since we got married. It was good fun, really good to meet with Jenn's uni friends and have a chance to chat over a meal. The food was amazing; Salmon Terrine, Steak and Guiness Pie, Chocolate Fondue, and Port and cheese to finish. Mmmmm.
I also got to meet Joseph the Dog - very friendly chappie - but Jenn's not great with dogs so she didn't really enjoy his playful side.
We got home Sunday lunchtime - and my parents came over with my Granddad - who hasn't seen our flat yet. Which meant we got to use our new tea set :)

All in all a busy weekend! However it occurred to me last night that we don't have any weekend left in October in which we are not already booked to do something! And we still need to organise trips to Southport (for photographer, and Jenns folks), Exeter, Portsmouth, and many more...
And it'll be Christmas soon!

So here's my plan - campaign to have an extra 3 day weekend added at the end of all months that have 31 days and just an extra 2 day weekend to months with 30 days (Feb can stay the same) Thus all months would have 28 days (4 working weeks) and everyone would be a little more relaxed cos they could use the extra weekend to do all the things you don't have time for. Gardening, for example, or having a lie-in, or even visiting friends (assuming they haven't gone to visit someone else the same weekend...)

maybe I'll set-up a facebook group.....

Alllll byyyyy myyyyseeeelf...don't wanna be....

My boss and my colleague are off at the Northgate conference today and tomorrow - and as such I'm "holding the fort" HESA-wise. I set out this morning anticipating a dull but fairly mind easing day correcting data errors for 7hrs straight.
But of course nothing is as simple - I've already had three verbal requests for reports, and a phone call regarding training - and it's only 10.30am!
Do people wait till there's only me? Is it some kind of conspiracy? Probably not.

In other news - John Lewis delivered all our cool shiny things on Friday and last night Jenn, myself and my folks went to Ikea. and we now have shiny leather dining chairs :) - we might even have enough chairs to invite people round now.... oooh

watch this space: ____________
(I dont know why - it won't change)

writers block...

Sept was officially the worst month so far bloggage-wise - only 3!
(edit: I've just noticed that June had 0 posts but hey)

I've promised myself I will blog a little more this month - however this entry counts, so winner!

Look to see some more coming soon.

variousness

This post is probably going to be quite fragmented - thus reflecting my current mental state quite effectively....

- Go to youtube and search for "the power of nightmares" - really interesting documentary about politicians and terrorism. (esp check out part 5 - where the politicians start using the church for their own gains - yet another reason that the church should be wary of gaining political power)

- Who makes the bikes for british TT champions Bradley Wiggins and David Millar? They keep breaking. Sort it out!

- What do people do in an evening? I'm usually on the computer - but it occurs to me there are probably other things to do...

- John Lewis are still yet to contact us regarding delivery of our wedding gifts... we'll have been married for a month on Monday.

- is setting up a document entitled "blog ideas" conducive to more regular bloggage?

thank you for reading. LP

Cheating

It seems that every sport I turn to has some news story of cheating. I am a fan of many sports but it's starting to become difficult to have the passion when you realise that so many people are attempting to cheat.
In no particular order:
a) Football - Diving is a major issue at the moment, but also match fixing (in the past), Chelsea's transfer ban, the occasional drugs issue
b) Cycling - EPO, and other blood doping reports STILL going on despite all the time/money/effort that has gone into fighting it.
c) Formula 1 - Renault's current scandal, McLaren spy-gate last year
d) Rugby - "Blood-gate" scandal - although I'm pretty sure this was the lamest attempt at cheating I've seen for a while
e) American Football - Patriots "Spy-gate" scandal although that was a couple of years ago. Actually Amercian Football seem pretty good at reacting to cheating.
and many others...
But the cheating that annoys me the most.... Wii Mario Kart online. WHY?!!? who sits down at a wii and thinks "I'll go online and cheat so that I can win every race by a mile, get a rating of 9999 and make all the other users games frustrating and ultimately wasted"? What is it they hope to achieve? at least with all the above sports you can say - there's a financial benefit to cheating or to gain noteriety or a win. But all the wii-cheaters are achieving: making me less likely to play online mario-kart. Thus eventually all that will be left are the cheaters and the eternal optimists.

I guess that at the end of the day my current 6900 rating doesn't reflect my ability and I'm OK with that :)

Update

I am back from honeymoon - it was good (that's all I'm saying here!)

Everything went well from our perspective and we both had a really good day!

Jenn is now all moved in to the flat - I've emptied some draws to accomodate her ever increasing clothing collection :)
It's still a little strange - I keep expceting to have to take Jenn to the station and see her go off to Bangor/Southport/up north somewhere but I don't have to anymore!

In other news - Arsenal are doing poorly, NY Giants doing well, Wiggo's still going in the Tour of Britain, and Button's form is back so all in all a mixed week for those I follow.
----------------------------------------
I signed up with Lijit a few weeks ago out of curiosity mostly - so far it tells me that no-one is reading this. Which makes me feel kinda relieved - at least i'm not annoying anyone!

So to all those who aren't reading this - Blog On!

Media Blackout

I'm off to get hitched....

internet access may be patchy and so this might be a last blog for a while.

See you on the otherside!

The centre of attention

I have come across a major flaw in this whole wedding malarkey.
I sincerely dislike being the centre of attention. I get very easily embarrassed by things and when that happens I can get a bit tongue-tied.
But why? What is it that I get embarrassed about?
It's probably something to do with the fact that I don't see why anyone would want to look at me. Unless I'm performing onstage/doing something worthy of attention then I'm like a duck in water.
It's probably some deep-seated inferiority complex - if only I knew a psychologist.....

The Sofa Saga

Jenn and I are due to be married in 8 days. As such we have set about attempting to create a home in which we both can live. As part of this endeavour we took a trip to Ikea, supplier of many furnishings, in order to buy a sofa-bed.
They don't have an amazing selection, most of the "bed" parts are pretty shoddy and looked like they'd fall apart if Zac jumped on them (he's 3!) but eventually we found a sofa we liked and bought it.
Sofa - so good*
When we ordered it - Ikea told us that we should check that the sofa would fit - gave us the measurements of the sofa. Now I don't know a lot about sofa's but I do know that they are not regular boxes - they have curvy bendy bits. So with my meagre knowledge of topography I guessed that, although the published figures were a little too big, that with some wiggling we'd be ok.
The sofa was attempted to be delivered on Tues (18th) and although the guys who delivered it gave it a really good try there was no way that the sofa was going to fit - my doorframe is approx 3 inches too narrow. So close and yet sofa **
What to do? The young men took the sofa away again telling me; "You will be contacted about to discuss how to procede". Very mafia.
And so it was. Ikea rang me on the Wednesday to offer me a refund of 60% - pretty generous considering it was a made-to-order job. However loathe to lose approx £300 and still have no sofa - I asked
"can I get it re-delivered?"
to which the nice lady scoffed
"well I suppose if you removed a window or something"
"No I mean - can I get it delivered to my parents?"
"Oh yes, you can do that. We'll charge you for re-delivery though."
"How much is that?"
"About £30 pounds"
So yeah for £30 I can have my sofa (and eat it too? no) even though it won't be in my flat it will at least be in my possesion for use at a later date!
All in all it's a bit of a faff and a mess but at the end of the day*** I'll look back and laugh! Although probably not for a while yet....

*Sorry
**Sorry again
***about 10ish

Stag-gering!

First of all may I say "chapeau" (it's a french term, used a lot in cycling, meaning "respect to/well done") to my Best Man Andy for organising a very good, action-packed day. I really did enjoy myself.
Secondly to all who came - even to only one or two events: Thank you - it was you who made it such a good day.

Football, Bowling, Gourmet Burgers, Paintballing and finally crawling home slightly more alive than dead; do days get any better? Well the 28th might but so far so good :)
Just as an update, I have, to date, discovered at least 8 bruises from paintballing - the real beauty is on my arm. A nice purpley-red target.

11 days to go....hopefully the bruises will have cleared.

Twitter update

decision: Twitter is not for me

End of discussion.

16 days to go!

To Do...

Get a haircut
Buy new shoes
Sort out CD os weddingy music
Sort out slide-show of piccys
Find a Bassist

Not necessarily in that order :)

Should I join twitter?

or (to quote David Cameron) do "too many twits make a tw*t"?

Also considering how sparsely I blog - will my twitter page be even less interesting?

Any recommendations?

Due South

It's all about luuuurvve!

No really! Got back from youth camp on Saturday (yes it's taken me two days to mention it - I've been sleeping!) It was awesome! I've always enjoyed pushing myself physically but camp is a way for me to push myself mentally and spiritually as well.
Jonny "Steve Mcqueen" Wilson was talking about love (the John 3:16 kind not the Hallmark kind) - which got me thinking again about the fact that God loves me. He really does! Even though I often ignore him, or forget about him or simply let him down. He still loves me despite the fact he knows me! (PS. This is true for you too)

It was really nice to spend some brief moments with Jenn too. We've been asked to take on more responsibilities for next year which is pretty exciting - means I'm looking forward to it even more!
Any hoo better go - bed beckons :)

40 is the new 20!

First Take that re-formed, then Brett Farve decided he wanted to un-retire, Lance Armstrong followed suit and now the german speed-meister Micheal Schumacher has decided to re-join the F1 ranks.

Now all the above had acheived certain amunts of success but is it worth it? I'm not so sure...

Waxing Lyrical

Rules: put your music on shuffle, write the first line from the first 30 songs that play, see how many people can guess the SONG and ARTIST.

Feel free to google - but have a go first! Some are really obscure!
_________________________________________________________________

1) The disease of my soul was spreading. Eating me up from the inside

2) Hey, girl, stop what you're doin' Hey, girl, you'll drive me to ruin

3) Just because I'm lazy, doesn't mean I'm lost

4) Oh no, I didn't mean to say what i did say, about lovers and how they should lay

5) D'you fancy a drink, just the one, to clear your head, we won't be long

6) You know I feel there's something 'bout to break now, you know I feel there's a city here to take now

7) People [are] talkin like it's the end of time, I look up to the heavens for a sign

8) Why do I listen to sad songs? Make me feel good when I've done wrong

9) (easy) Welcome to the Jungle, we got fun 'n' games!

10) Thought that I was all alone, broken and afraid, but you were there with me,

11) I'm a son of a good man, I'm the child of an angel, I'm the brother of a wild one,

12) Brain fried tonight through misuse Through misuse, through misuse

13) Step one, you say, We need to talk He walks, you say, Sit down, it's just a talk

14) Psychic spies from China Try to steal your mind's elation

15) High, higher than the sun You shoot me from a gun

16) I don't wanna watch the street or TV, I don't wanna hear about your day

17) It's raining again, I'm hearing its pitter patter down.

18) Wind me up, put me down, start me off and watch me go.

19) Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry You don't know how lovely you are

20) Pretty if the sun won’t shine I’ll be coming out to meet you I’ll be there to make you mine

Some easy, some hard - let me know what you think they are!

2 Blogs in 2 days...you lucky people!

1 Month to go! And with most things sorted it's starting to get exciting!

Next on the list is sorting out who sits where. Now this is a very complex procedure of trying to figure out who might get on and trying not to isolate individuals on a table where they don't know anyone. Easy you say? Nope.
Now add that some people definitely won't get on. Then limit the numbers to 10 per table, sprinkle in the idea of people mingling and not sitting in their natural groups and you get a great head-ache recipe!
So If you're coming to the wedding (and the meal) you might end up sitting next to a complete stranger. Don't worry though we're only inviting nice people :)